Carmi businessman Cody Gottman has jewelry in his blood. Two of his uncles own and operate successful jewelry stores in Gottman Jewelry in Mt. Carmel and The Goldsmith in Princeton. Gottman, who originally hails from Owensville, Indiana says he’s put roots down in Carmi now and plans to be in it for the long haul. He purchased H.D. Bean Jewelers in 2014 and celebrated his 5th anniversary in February. Gottman presented the Carmi Kiwanis program Thursday.
He didn’t always know he was going to be a jeweler however, saying after high school it was either jewelry or the military. Given those options, his mother pushed him into Gem School Gottman says. The 8 month independent study gave him the foundations. He says they taught him the “old way” stating it was easier to learn the traditional ways first and then adding in the modernization rather than doing it backwards.
When it comes to running a successful jewelry store in Carmi, Gottman says, “The big thing that I do differently from when I bought the business from Barbara Kearney is that I’m an actual certified jewelry designer and I guess you could call repair guy. So you’ve got a broken ring or you want me to make something from scratch. I went to school and have been in business long enough that I can basically provide that for you. And that’s something that wasn’t in White County period before. And that’s what’s basically propelled us into where we’re at now, where it’s a more profitable business because we do everything in house. Before when you bought a ring from Barb, she’d have to send it off and there’d be maybe a week or two turnaround before that ring got back to you. Now, if you buy a ring from me and you need it sized or adjusted or anything like that, I typically will do that either same or next business day and that increases your profitability and it’s nice.”
Gottman says he’s worked hard to get to his level of success saying he lived in the building for the first 8 months to save money and as a contingency in case things didn’t go according to plan so he could get out of town pretty quickly.
He didn’t fail however and now no longer leases the building, owns it, has paid it off and has done some remodeling and redesigning to the interior. He is now setting his sights on making some improvements to the exterior and providing customers a premium experience.
“We focus on giving you superb experience so I want you to walk through the door and feel like you’re in an Evansville shop or a bigger, high end store, but not have to charge you a high end price.”
In addition to the successful business, helping to give him roots in Carmi was finding love. Gottman is no longer on the Carmi’s most eligible bachelor’s list as he recently wed local High School Arts instructor Hannah (Roe) Gottman.
H.D. Bean Jewelry is located in downtown Carmi. Phone 618-382-8170 for details.
